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The 1?eCOT OFFICIAL
No. 3207.
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Perth, Thursday, Sept. 19, 1963 •
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POLITICAL COMECHO 101th BY CHAPLAIN
Sister Dies Suddenly A week after she had suffered her first heart attack, SISTER MARY MATTHEW died suddenly at St. John of God Hospital on last Sunday morning.
A statement made last week by Father Roch R omac, 0.F.M., in charge of the Croatian Catholic Centre in Queen Street, Woollahra, New South Wales, said that the Centre had no c onnection whatever with any political organisation. He also stated that no training for revolutionary activity in Yugoslavia had ever been given there. The Franciscan priest made these statements to a r eporter from Sydney's "Catholic Weekly," w h o went to interview him. This interview came in the wake of sensational stories in the press based on a communique issued in Belgrade by the Yugoslav Exterior Ministry. NO REPORT Father Roch made the complaint that he had taken reporters from the daily papers on a tour of the centre on the Thursday afternoon, but no report of what the reporters had seen had appeared. He said that the centre was not a "club" as the papers had made out, but a welfare centre for Croatian migrants in physical or economic distress. Father Roch said that the only meetings held in the centre were those conducted by himself to instruct newly arrived Croats in Australian customs. He described the centre as being Open to all Croatian people in Sydney. One room at the centre had been used for wedding receptions and a front room on the bottom floor was a reading library used by visitors to the centre. POSSIBLE Father Roch said that it was possible that the men allegedly arrested in Yugoslavia could have discussed Plans to return to their homeland in the room at the centre.reading ever, he pointed out Howsuch discussions could that as easily have taken just place in a hotel bar, street corner, at work, or in a private home. He said that if the distussions took place in the Centre, it was unknown to him, The grounds at the centre Were open to view from houses on either side. It would be impossible to train men in so-called "terrorist activities" without the knowledge of the occuPants of these houses, said Father Roch. The main centre for SydrleY's 6,000 Croats was the A .ustralian tion, at Croatian Associa47 Buckingham Street, Surry Hills. The 150.11ticalassociation was a With no and cultural centre connection with the
Woollahra Centre, ' said Father Roch. He knew two of the arrested men. He knew Josip Oblak personally and was acquainted with Ilija Toile, but the remaining seven men were completely unknown to him. [The Sydney "Sun" claimed Father Roch knew Oblak but he did not know the other eight "very well.") Father Roch said Oblak knew of the Woollahra Centre and probably used the address as a "cover up." The Yugoslav Interior Ministry was another name for the Yugoslav COMMUnist Secret Police, an equivalent of the Russian N.K.V.D., said Father Roch. He objected strongly to the use of the label "terrorist" for men who had suffered so much under the Communist regime a n d wished to see their country free.
TV Mass from Northam Solemn High Mass will be televised from St. Joseph's Church. Northam on Sunday, September 22. The staff of ABW2 are carrying out the telecast. Celebrant of the Mass Will be Monsignor T. Ahern, dean of the Avon Districts, Fathers E, McGrath and A. Heron. C.R.P. will be deacon and subdeacon. Preacher at the Mass will be the Rector of St. Thomas More College, Father T. Stormon. S.J., and the commentator will be the Rector of St. Charles' Seminary, Father A. Commins, C.M. Pupils from St. Joseph's Convent school will carry out the ceremonies under the direction of Father E. Clancy, C.M.
These unidentified polio victims from France were among a group receiving the blessing of Pope Paul V1 at an audience in the papal summer villa, Castelgandolfo, August 28
Sister Matthew had received the Sacrament of Extreme Unction on the previous Sunday from the hospital chaplain, Rev. J. Lynch. She died while preparing to receive Holy Communion on Sunday, September 15, Feast of the Seven Dolours of Our Lady. Two brothers of the deceased Religious flew from the Eastern States when they were informed of her illness. They are Father T. Scanlan, parish priest of Picton, diocese of Wollongong, N.S.W., and Father J. Scanlan, parish priest of Gulgong, diocese of Bathurst, N.S.W. The late Sister Matthew entered the Sisters of St. John of God in 1924 and was professed at Subiaco on November 21, 1926. She nursed at Goulburn, Warrnambool, Ballarat and Subiaco. For many years latterly she had worked in the stores and supply section of the Subiaco Convent and Hospital. Sister came from County Clare, Ireland. The Solemn Requiem Mass, attended by about fifty priests and representatives of Religious Orders, was offered on Tuesday morning. His Grace the Archbishop presided at the Mass, celebrant was Father T. Scanlan, deacon Father F. Dillon, sub-deacon Monsignor T. Lenihan and the master of ceremonies was Father F. Walsh. The priests' choir chanted the Mass. May she rest in peace.
World Laity Called By Pope: "Come Now" F raascati, ( Italy ) : "Come help us now!" His Holiness Pope Paul V1 said in a direct appeal to the laity of the world to enter actively into the work of the church. The Pontiff's strong and simple appeal was made in his Sermon during Mass at the cathedral of Frascati on a Sunday morning. This also — the Mass and sermon — began to appear as something new in the modern pontificates. It was the third successive Sunday that the Pope had left his summer residence at Castelgandolfo to go to a nearby church in the hill country south of Rome to celebrate Mass and deliver a sermon after the Gospel, just as Catholic priests everywhere were doing. NEW PATTERN The Pope himself had made this apparently developing pattern something to watch, for he had made the three sermons of the three
Sundays vehicles for important pronouncements: August 18, Was an appeal to the Eastern Christian Churches for reunion; August 25, a general appeal for a stronger living Faith: September 1, an invitation to the laity to go to work in the apostolate "today — immediately." The occasion of the Pope's visit was a solemn ceremony to venerate the remains of St. Vincent Pallotti — who a century and a half ago had offered his First Mass, at Frascati, and who was canonised by Pope John last January. Pope Paul hailed the newly sainted founder of the Society of Catholic Apostolate as "a pioneer in his discovery of the laity's capacity for good," and he said that Pallotto had given
a lesson to the church to enable it to "foresee and prepare for this hour when the Catholic laity has come of age." The laymen, said the Pope, "is now one of the major hopes of the Church" . . . "All of us are responsible for our times and for our brothers. Responsibility is a tremendous word which only the saints with their intuitive optimism conceived with energetic force. St. Vincent Pallotti was a pioneer of that perception."
A PPEAL Then, phrasing his words in a direct and universal appeal, the Pope said to lay people: "The day is growing late. Become convinced that it is necessary to work today— immediately. that not an hour can be lost! The needs are immense and most urgent. "Come and help us to tell the world where is truth and where is error — this world which is so distracted and almost overcome by centrifugal movements. There is need to go to work today, immediately. Tomorrow
could be too late. Now is the hour of the laity . . . "It is now that the lay people must knowledgeably join the hierarchy in carrying the cross on the road of salvation and immerse themselves with the hierarchy in the diffusion of grace. The laity, awakened by modern culture, already feels this vocation."
ACTIVE ELEMENT In the course of his sermon, the Pope also said: "The first responsibilities belong naturally to the priest. But St. Vincent Pallotti saw that the layman himself could become an active element, thus anticipating by a century the modern forms of the lay apostolate. This truth is not yet recognised sufficiently. "The layman should arrive at a knowledge of this fact, which is true not only by reason of the need for lengthening the arms of the priest, which do not reach everywhere and are not sufficient for all his labours. It is true also because of something deeper and more essential: by reason of the ( Continued on Page 11.)